Maleficent: the truth (Genderbender)
by christina ike
Summary: The got it all wrong, Maleficent was never the one at fault, but he was never the hero either. The truth is about to become unleashed, you won't believe the words of truth that I'll share with you.
1. Prologue

April.6th is what the creatures behind the forest that separated the humans from the mystical world called, Doomsday. This was the date of the princess' birth, everyone was there in the throne room, gathering around her. But she was a shock to everyone who saw her. She wasn't your blond beauty, she was a child that everyone knew wasn't fit to be a queen, yet alone a royal.

She was a baby born with black hair, and the eyes of Satan himself, no one had know why, but the Queen knew the reason to the core of why her sweet, sweet Aurora was in the state she was in. The child smiled and whimpered as a normal child would, and was just as curious, but her temper was something that no one wanted to be near. The child became spoiled, all to avoid that rage of the newborn royal. In this time she became unbearable, and was no longer detainable for the humans to control, so she was given off to the three fairies who we all know very well as Knotgrass, Thiswit and Merrywether.

As time grew older, the Queen's strength had grown weaker, until one day she eventually collapsed, she knew that she would be hung by her King if she were to confess in front of him. So she wrote a letter for him to wake up to the morning she would be gone and out of the kingdom, but things didn't go exactly as planned that day.

_My King,_

_I had no other choice but to share this with you through a letter, it was never meant to be this way, and I'm sorry, that it had to. The day I learned of the pregnancy I knew that it wasn't yours, the child belongs to not a man, but a creature._

_To be quite honest with you darling, my love for you had vanished a few months after our marriage was official, you had changed, and showed me the true sides of your heart. Do you remember the night of our fight? If I do recall, you had hit for not being a proper wife because I spoken to the main eating breakfast with us that morning without your promotion in advanced to do so. Well I don't know if you noticed or not, but I wasn't in bed that night, because the state I was in was too embarrassing for even the man who I had despised to see me in. _

_I found myself wandering the streets of our kingdom, I was in pure shock of the way you had treated me, and the words you spread upon me. I roamed the streets with tear blocking the little sight I had in the dark; I could tell that the kingdom was ruled by you, because everyone was just as cruel, all but one, a man who had no king, and did not live underneath your brainwashing reign. he stood in the shadows, I told him to come out, I said 'so not be afraid' I tried to be strong, but he laughed in the dark that he used as his shield, and whispered back in a voice that was just hypnotizing. "I am not afraid, I came to the call of your tears." He never came out of the shadows, He gave me his hand to bring me in them, and he had taken me off to the world of wonders, and peace, a world that has no ruler._

_On that night, he had taken care of me, and made me feel like a human being, a woman who was equal to man. That night we had made love that was like no other that anyone has ever described, I had fallen in love with one who we all call a monster, and his name is Maleficent._

_Many apologies my love, but I will no longer be by your side, and your princess, is not of your blood._

_Your Queen,_

_Elizabeth _

As the king had read on through the letter, the more furious he had become. Denial was something that he didn't take very well, The Queen went on her way to meet the one who she loved, but he was furious with her for his own reasons. A woman to have his child, and claim it to another man, was an insult to any creature. He watched her as the kings men hauled her away to become beheaded. Maleficent didn't know anything of the child, nor would he ever, for when the Queen called out his name, he never appeared, and that's what planted a bitter seed in his heart. The king always found new ways to force the people of his kingdom to hate the creatures behind the forest, who had stolen his queen.

_Fake blood, the love between enemies, and the beginning of the truth. _


	2. Chapter one

Aurora wasn't born with beauty, it was forced upon her. Let me explain to you what everyone saw, when the child was born. She wasn't just pale, she had a sick tint of an extremely pale green as her complexion. Her hair was thick, and black, but there were two spots on her head, wear her hair wouldn't grow. She didn't have wings, she was half human after all, and she didn't have carnivorous teeth either, but she did have claws for nails. Of course our loving Aurora grew up happy, but that was because she hadn't the slightest clue of what she was.

Her 'father' -The King had sent her off to a poor little cottage, in the middle of nowhere. It was somewhat too close to the creatures land, and too close to far off the edge of the human's land. No one had traveled such a distance. To Aurora these three fairies were very much human, they were her three step-mothers (not aunts), those three fairies were greedy, and refused to take care of her, an less they knew they had a part of the throne; which wasn't very well thought out if you ask me.

But as stupid and cruel as all three of them were, they had their moments. When Aurora was first put in their care, they changed everything vile about her. As fairies, they saw the beauty of both the humans, and fair-people, but the couldn't see the beauty of both species of so much difference combining into one another. And that's where they took the blessing from in the traditional story. Iron burns fairies, but she was only half fairy, so it only burned the parts that were entirely fairy. The two bald spots on her head were there because she was growing horns, just like Maleficent's. They made her a black band, complete made out of Iron, for her to wear over her horns as a head band. Getting burnt for just a few seconds can last days, and still cause pain. This child was expected to live with it 24/7 without a single tear fall from her eyes. This was the first blessing, from Knotgrass.

"I give you the blessing of happiness, so that you'll never be sad, and so that you'll shut up with your crying." So Aurora cried no more, but she did have questions, she always asked why things ran away from her, and what was wrong with her, why she looked the way she looked. This brought up the second blessing, from Merrywether.

"I give you the blessing of beauty, so that no one will be frightened of your ugliness." Instantly her hair grew long, and bleached into a golden blond. Her skin was no longer pale, and her eyes, were a shivering shade of blue. But despite her happiness, and her beauty, she was still annoying. Which brings us to the third blessing, from Thiswit.

"I give you the blessing of admiration, so that everyone will love you, and you'll stop annoying the living hell out of everything that breathes." and that's it, that's how our beautiful sleeping beauty, came to be . . . well her.

_~ time change ~ _

Everyday is the same, "You're lucky that you have us to take care of you."

"Be grateful that were so generous, and are willing to waste our time with a girl like you." My three step-mothers all spoke to me as if I were a completely different species. But I'm just as much of a human as they are, well . . . I'm trying to believe that anyways. Everyday I just doubt that fact even more, that maybe I should just rebel and be as cruel to them as they are to me. I have nothing but a pathetic little owl to talk to. Sometimes I don't even think he understand what I'm saying, I'm going mad.

"Aurora!" Oh goodness, having my name screamed out in fury once was tolerable, but to have all three of my step-mothers call for me furiously at the same time, I knew there'd be no mercy to the consciences of whatever I didn't wrong this time. I came down the stairs, stomping my feet on each step as loud as possible so that they could here that I was coming down rather quickly.

"Yes-" I was stunned when I saw them, Merrywether's face was blue, Knotgrass' face was green, and Thiswit's face was pink. Even though I had nothing to do with the situation, I was jealous that I hadn't. I couldn't breath, I was afraid that I would burst into an everlasting curse of laughter.

All of their eyes were flinching as they looked at me. attempting not to laugh at them, and their stupidity. "What - is - the meaning of this!" Merrywether's stomped her foot on the ground and furiously pointed to her face, completely forgetting about the other two who were just as angry with me. The worse part about my step-mothers was that they weren't clumsy, or stupid; they were all just idiots. "I promise you Mother Merrywether I had nothing to do with your - um, colored faces." I barely made it to the end of my sentence. They all exchanged glances to one another, and then they all stared at me in silence. I guess they thought the power of their eye's emotion would break me into telling them what they wanted to hear. But all three of my step-mothers are extremely impatient. Thiswit is the one who decided to break the silence.

"Why you good for nothing , lying, ignorant child. Why did you put the extra baking powder in the cake! you knew this would happen, what in the hell have we ever done to you?" I feel like saying she was on the verge of tears, but in reality, she was just really red, and had a naturally abnormally high voice. She always sounded like she was going to cry. "Mother Thiswit, I assure you I didn't do anything to the cake, I hate baking - I would never go anywhere near an oven." Every word I said made her shake even more. "Oh don't you give me all of those bull-shit lies!" I could see some of the animals crowding up at the window, some taking my side, and some taking the other. I was surprised that none of them were cheering, and telling each other off.

Before I could open my mouth Knotgrass, began to play shy. "It was the extra baking powder?" Now all eyes were on Knotgrass, and I smiled, thinking that there was no way at this point that they could blame it all on me. "But I slipped in some extra, because I lost track of how much I had already put, because Aurora was singing so loudly. She wasn't even singing, she was screeching." Shit. I shouldn't have put my hopes up so high, all eyes were back on me. " Why you inconsiderate little girl. You can't sing, so don't sing anymore, maybe I should give you another blessing." Merrywether started waving her hand around in the air, and pink dust began to collect around it.

"Wait." My heart sunk in relief. "I know what we should do . . . put her in the woods over night, if she's going to screech like an animal she might as well live like one. Then we'll see if she wants to _'sing' _again. All three of them laughed, and I was paralyzed with fear, the forest wasn't a normal forest, things happen in there. "Don't do this, I'm sorry - I won't sing." I squirmed as the grabbed my arms and legs to drag out side. Even though it was morning, I guess the sooner they kicked me out the better, then they'd have less time to doubt themselves about their decision. "Too late." All three of them spat out to me, within a matter of seconds, I was out of the cottage, and I no longer had a home. But I had no Idea, how I was going to survive in a forest like this. Once the sun drops, I'm screwed.


	3. Chapter two

I stared at the door; my ass on the ground with who knows what in it. For some reason I expected them to open the door, but the only thing that changed was the sun transforming into the moon. I could hear all three of them screaming at one another, switching sides at one another, discussing on whether to let me back in or not. "Hey!" A voice hissed at me, and my neck threatened to snap because of how fast I turned in the direction of the voice, but there was nothing there. I scanned the dark trees, even though I knew no matter how hard I looked I wouldn't see anything anyways - it was too dark.

"Well, are you just going to stand there or are you going to come here?" There it was again, but the voice still scared me just as much as the first time. I lost my train of thought, I didn't know what to do, what to say, or where to go; so I just sat there - frozen. "My goodness girl, are you deaf? You're going to get yourself killed." The voice was annoyed, and he sounded somewhat frightened. "Ooh, Synx just go get her, before someone else takes her." There was another voice, a squeakier voice, which didn't calm me at all. I found myself looking back at through the window, but the bickering had stopped, and the light were out; they had decided to let me stay out here for the night. Tears began to stream down my face. Stepmother or not, they were still my mothers, and they had to take care of me.

"Awww, look she's crying." They squeaky voice was now directly behind me, almost ear level. I screamed and turned around - clumsily thrashing my feet, to crawl away from them backwards. "I can see that, and look now you scared her." That was from the voice that first started talking to me. I didn't really understand at first, but they looked to be tiny dragons. One was purple and black, the other black and purple. I've never seen anything like the creatures that were in front of me, but I had a clear idea of which voice belonged to which body. "What are you?" I didn't mean it, but there was a hint of disgust in my tone of voice. "What am I? who in the hell says that? when you first meet some random dude do you just go and say, what are you!" I leaned back as he came closer, he stopped after his was no longer in rang of me, the other one was holding his tale, like it was a normal thing.

"I'm sorry?" The black and purple one sat down with his legs and arms crossed, as the other one got up to where he was. "My name is Sydney, and this is my brother Synx. We are a dragons if you couldn't tell, wear just . . . um . . . travel sized." She tried to give me a friendly smile, but it wasn't very comforting to see each and every blade that she called teeth in her mouth - each one covered in; for my sake I'm going to say a lot of cherry juice. She put out her four fingered claws for me to shake. I put out my hand, but it shook vigorously in fear. "I'm Aurora." It sounds like something easy to say, but my voice cracked and squealed as I spoke out those words.

"We know." They both said at the same time, I guess my step-mothers were louder than I thought. "What are you doing out here, are you suicidal or something, what the hell is wrong with you." Synx hissed at me again, I was starting to believe that he was more like a snake that happened to have legs, arms and wings. Sydney began to nod in agreement to her brother. "Yes, do you know who roams at night? If your not inside, then you're going to get killed, or worse . . . live your life as if you were dead." I had no idea what they were talking about. I've heard nothing of such danger, and as strict as my step-mother were I didn't think they hated me that much.

The wind began to fly from every direction possible. "Come, come, come. we must go now." Sydney was yelling at me, but only loud enough for me to hear her tone. Both Synx and Sydney dragged me through the woods - for small dragons, they had a lot of strength. We didn't run far, until I noticed that there were no more trees, and the ground looked like it had stopped, but I was praying that the dark was just pulling my leg. Before I could say anything, There was no longer soil underneath my feet, nothing was under my feet, but air. And both Sydney and Synx transformed into their true size and spread there wings which shot us back, and then they both shrunk back to size, and all three of us landed in a cave that was a part of the cliff.

I tumbled, and once again found myself sitting on the ground with both dragons in front of me. They closed the wooden door and turned around to look at me. "So you have nowhere to stay, so you're welcome to stay with us." Sydney smiled, this time with her mouth shut, and waited for my response. "Oh no, I couldn't." I wanted to be polite, but what I said was just plain stupid. I needed a place to stay. "Nonsense, you need a place to stay, we can teach you how to survive the woods, both day and night-" Synx crawled up my back and onto my shoulder. "- and then if you really want to go, we'll be ok with it, because we'll know that you can survive; deal?" I opened and closed my mouth, not really knowing how to respond to his proposal. "Great she said yes!" he then jumped of, and I began to breathe again.

"What were you talking about, the think that roams the night?" I wanted to know, curiosity got the best of me. They both looked at me, and then to each other. "You two will meet soon enough, we all get to encounter with one another sooner than later." Synx spoke as if there was a bad memory behind it. "Well I want to know who this thing is." I guess I was getting a bit more comfortable. "Be careful what you wish for." They both whispered to me, a chill ran down my spin when they both spoke in such a tone. Synx blew out all of the lights, and we were all in darkness, until morning.


	4. Chapter three

******Narration:**

As the next morning came up, decisions of a 'well deserved visit' was decided. The three fairies, or should we say three stepmothers were all fast asleep in there heartless dreams. As the sun began to rise, the distance between the king and their cottage became smaller. The king knew his child was nothing but a beast, but in the end he was a father, and had some sort of love towards her. When the king arrived our three step-mothers were still in a deep sleep, but that changed rather quickly.

The king jumped off of the horse, and landed on the dirt ground; his long cape dragging on the earth's surface behind him. He wore armor, as much as he loved his daughter, he still didn't trust her . . . form of species. His fist hit hard against the wooden door, and all three step-mothers had fallen onto the floor - out of their beds. "I'm coming, I'm coming!" Merrywether screamed out furiously. She hustled to the door, attempting to fix herself up a bit at the same time before she had to open it. Merrywether looked hideous that morning, and it didn't help that she drooled in her sleep, or was angry; which only made her look older. Now that I think if it, they all looked worse than Aurora before her blessing.

When Merrywether opened the door, the King they both jolted back in fear of one another. Merrywether slammed herself to the ground; bowing to the king. And the king looked away, praying that he wouldn't have any long term nightmares of Merrywether, or any of the other fairies. "Go wash yourselves off, and powder your faces! Then I will enter the primacies" The king couldn't have spoken his words any faster. All three stepmothers ran around the house like fools, attempting to follow the King's orders as quickly as possible. Merrywether came up to the door again, with face much more acceptable, and invited him in. "Some tea?" All three of the step-mother asked, which pissed them all off - Merrywether the most.

All three of them hurdled into the kitchen, and began whispering to each other; the king looked at them, but thought nothing of it. "Why is he here?" Knotgrass asked, she was on the verge fainting. Merrywether slapped knotgrass, and both her and Thiswit gasped in aw. "Oh shut up the both of you." he stared between the two of them. She began to put the kettle on to boil the water. "I know why he's here." Merrywether spoke out in a stressed tone, as she made the tea for the king. "Well - what does he want?" Thiswit spoke out gracefully, she was the shy one. "To thank us. For the burden we took off his hands." Merrywether smiled and put her head up high to serve her King.

The three step-mothers came up, one behind the other and sat across from the king; Merrywether serving the tea of course. "So, I came here to see my daughter." After those words, each of the step-mother's faces sunk. "What?" Knotgrass, asked, she looked as if she was going to drop her tea. Thiswit began to laugh in a nervous state. "well your Kingliness, technically she isn't your daughter at all, why on earth would you want to see her?" Thiswit strained to swallow the saliva storing in her mouth, beads of sweat began to pour down her face. "Either way, she is the daughter of my queen-" The King spoke out defensibly towards them all. "You killed your Queen, so obviously the relationship wasn't going to well." The king stared Thiswit down. "Just saying sir." Thiswit's voice got quieter for each word she spoke. "I loved my Queen, but she didn't love me back. Although the child was born under my name, there for she is mine. Where. Is. My. Daughter?" The king tilted his head, as if he were challenging them all.

Both Knotgrass, and Thiswit locked away, but Merrywether smiled at the King, as if she knew exactly what she was doing, but lets not fool ourselves here, we all know that all three of them are stupid mothers with wings. "You majesty, Aurora isn't here." She spoke with pride. "Where is she?" The king was calm, but he was beginning to get pissed off. "She ran away, she didn't understand why she was like she was." Merrywether shot out a shrug and a calm glare at the King, as if it were no big deal. But the King thought otherwise. He stood up, flipping the table and everything else that was on it. All three stepmothers his away for cover. "You speak to me as if this is nothing. That is my daughter," he screamed out looked down at them. "Step" Merrywether corrected him; she really was the biggest idiot of them all. "I want you to get her back, because she was placed under your responsibility, and if she isn't here with seven days, I assure you, you'll be meeting the same fate as my Queen." He stormed off, and rod on his horse.

"I apologize for my language but . . . shit." Thiswit spoke out, as she stared at the king disappearing from their view on his horse with his men. "Yes I do believe it's a good time to say, 'we're screwed.'" Knotgrass spoke out, but not in any confidence. "We need to find that girl, before we die ourselves." Merrywether marched upstairs to pack some bags, and the other two followed her example. "We're going hunting." Merrywether said with a smile on her face, but we all know that this wasn't going to go too well.


	5. Chapter four

" My sweet, sweet, handsome, amazing and freakishly lazy, and annoying younger brother." A tall pale green woman went behind Maleficent as he sat down slugged half way down his throne. She proceeded to speak to him from behind in his ear, and rubbed his shoulders. "You know, I would understand if this little insistent happened, oh I don't know - around sixteen years ago. But my goodness, it's been sixteen years Maleficent! My little brother, you must-"

"Shut up!" A raven came from the wind to sit on a branch sticking out from the natural design of the throne. shut up! shut up! The crow mimicked his master in tiny hisses towards his sister. "My sweet sister, I'm a grown ass man, this whole little brother act of yours won't work, I no longer look up to you, as if I'm dragged around by a leash. Anais I love you, but honestly let me be miserable in peace!" Maleficent left his shoulder, and walked herself in front of him to look down upon her brother. "Or else what?" Her jaw tightened as she waited for an answer.

"pieces!" The crow hissed out before Maleficent could open his mouth. "Oh shut up, you vile little creature." She raised her hand towards the crow, but Maleficent pushed her down before her shot could crawl out of her fingertips.

Maleficent was knelt on top of each other, and maleficent just stared stunned, with her hands pinned to the ground. "I am over it sister, it's the times when I forget that she is no longer here, and leave to visit her to find nothing but an empty bed that pisses me off. And the very idea of my daughter being somewhere in that castle, being taught to hate the species that created her brings tears to my eyes." He lifted himself of of her to stand, but Maleficent didn't move yet. "That is why I've been grieving for so long, please let me be." He went back to his throne, and sat down, with his crow seated on his shoulder.

"Maleficent!" An Ogor with tusks of steel, and indestructible armor screamed out to them, looking at Maleficent, and his sister Anais on the ground. Maleficent lifted his head up high to look superior, and strong. The Ogor bowed his head the second he realized what Maleficent was waiting for. "What is it?" Maleficent voice had changed from self pity to stone. Anais made her way up to her feet, and glared between the Ogor and her brother. "You have some visitors waiting for you presence, they clam to have news worth your wild." It had been quite some time since someone had came to visit Maleficent's lands he didn't want to seem to eager in front of anyone, but the news could almost put a smile on his face, he was tiered of the same people day after day. "I'll be right down." The Ogor took a deep breath through his nose and bowed twice this time, once to Maleficent, and the other to Anais. He then left going off to find the guest once again.

**~ Scene change ~**

"What are we going to say?" Thiswit paced from left to right in the air in front of Knotgrass and Merrywether. Knotgrass began to sweat out blue pellets of water. "What if he thinks we're mocking him? He'll kill us, oh I don't want to die." Merrywether began to turn red in annoyance; being forced to listen to the blabber between the both of them. She started to slap them both after every syllable she pronounced. "Pull yourself together!" her voice echoed through the room, which shut all three of them up. An even bigger sound began to each through the room, and a green mist appeared as Maleficent made his entrance. The second he saw the three fairies, each of them holding each other in fear - their jaws wide enough to touch the floor; he regretted coming down. oh great, and afternoon with idiots went through his head. There was a long pause before Merrywether untangled herself from the bunch and dramatically bowed down to his feet. "Maleficent, it is an honor." Maleficent didn't bother to wait for the other to, they were still holding each other in fear of his appearance, like they hadn't seen magic before.

Maleficent's eyes wandered between the two entwined of one another, and Merrywether floating in front of him, with her head facing the ground. "What do want?" his voice was even, and calm. But there was the tone of annoyance, and impatience hidden behind the lies his voice shared out to them. Merrywether rose to look at him, before she spoke she looked behind her shoulder to the two fools she lived with, slowly they came forward and bowed to Maleficent, but he was just growing more impatient with them.

"What do you want!" is voice seemed to snap them back into reality. "We came here to tell you that - " Merrywether covered Knotgrass' lips to continue. This was too important, Merrywether didn't want them to mess up the one chance they had. maleficent horns began to glow, green mist seeping out of the cracks. The clouds crawled beneath him, and he sat - he had no hope that he would be leaving anytime soon.

"It's about your daughter." Merrywether didn't know how to word it, so she had decided being blunt was the best way to go. But she was very wrong. He stood, the clouds beneath him vanished into nothing, as he began to walk away. All three of the fairies looked at each other stunned. None of them knew what that had meant, it was safe to say that all three of them expected a larger conversation than this.

"Wait, you can't go. What will happen to us?" Thiswit stupidly asked as the distance between them grew further and further apart. But her question was stunning enough to make him stop. He spoke out to them, but didn't bother to turn. Once again his horns began to smoke forming a staff in his hand, as he spoke out to the three behind him. "What do you mean, what will happen to you? Are you the three that the stories whisper about, the ones that took her away, changed the face of royalty?" Merrywether's face began to bowl, she scrunched her face, and stared at Thiswit; but no reaction came out of Thiswit's face.

"Yes I'm sorry to say, but we are here because we plan to -" Maleficent lifted his staff and slammed against the cold grounds. A blinding light came from the end, and spread in all direction, going through whatever was there. The three fairies tried to hold their ground as the gust of win went against them, and the light blinded them. But Maleficent held his ground. When the room went back to it's regular lighting, Ogors were standing against the walls, and in front of all the entrances. Each one growling and staring at the three fairies they surrounded. "Take them down to the cells."

"Stop!" Anais walked through the Ogor that was standing in front of the entrance behind her younger brother. At that point Maleficent turned around. The three fairies looked frightened, but hoped that the woman was sentimental, they all began to squeal, and beg, but both Maleficent and Anais managed to ignore it. "What now? I'd rather you not be here." He didn't bother o walk over to her; neither did she bother to walk over to him. She began to pout, and slowly cocked her head up with a wide smile on her face, and started to chuckle for a moment. "Relax, I'm not here to boss you, I just want to know what you plan on doing to them. And as a peace offering, I even brought you down your bird" The crow squawked and flew over to his shoulder. "he missed you."

"If you must know, I plan on killing them eventually." The fairies' pleas grew louder than ever once they heard of their death. Maleficent lifted his staff towards them, and mud flew onto their mouths; shutting them all up. "Why?" Anais looked amused, and had no shame in showing it. "They speak of my daughter, and if you don't mind, I find it easier to think that she's dead, rather than to believe that she's been living with those fools for sixteen years." Maleficent nodded his head in the fairies' direction. "If you believe that she's dead, than why do plan on killing them?" Not like Anais really cared, but she loved annoying her younger brother, and she could see by the looks on his face that she was succeeding in her task. "To make me feel better." Maleficent gave out an sarcastic smile to his sister.

"Fine, but you have quite a nosey bird, you should hear what he over heard; speak bird." Anais' smile widened. " Aurora! Aurora!" Maleficent looked at the crow, and back at his sister. "Ok? so he over heard someone speaking of the story in the villages." He turned and walked away. "The king is hunting for his daughter who is named Aurora. She was living on our grounds since birth, our creature speak of an abnormal child." The fairies began to nodded their heads in agreement. Maleficent didn't stop. "Ogor, take them to the cells." Anais said nothing as he walked away, but Maleficent began to walk taller and with pride, with a sly grin on his face; his daughter could still be alive.


End file.
